Steve Blinn, who heads a boutique PR firm in New York focused on tech and financial clients, has compiled a list of what he believes are the 11 biggest lies agencies tell in pitching business or buttering up current clients. While some of the list can be seen as a small firm exec hitting on the big agencies, the list does carry some weight.

Among the prevarications are every-day complaints like pitching an account with a senior team and later servicing it with a junior one, highlighting "relationships" with reporters, and telling a client a product is great when it really isn't.

Blinn admits that "polite" fallacies are occasionally called for "to lubricate the wheels of commerce."

He blogs:

"But there are fabrications that are particular to the PR business. You see them lurking, again and again, in the latest cut and paste press release announcing a new client win. You read them on agency blogs. You hear about them from disillusioned clients."